Academy for LoRaWAN®

The performance characteristics of LoRaWAN mean that it is not always necessary to carry out formal radio planning. In some cases, a simple signal strength test using a coverage-mapping tool may suffice.

The more a planned deployment leans to the right of the diagram shown in the figure below, the more important it is for you to conduct proper radio planning, so you can confidently deploy a cost-effective network with predictable, high-quality service.

In contrast, for deployments that lean to the left of the diagram below, conducting a full radio planning exercise is probably overkill. These kinds of deployments benefit more from gateway placement followed by signal strength testing. Use signal strength testing to validate coverage and to determine whether you need to add or relocate gateways.

Radio Planning vs. Signal Stregth Testing

Several factors influence a network’s coverage. Key among them are:

• Terrain. The shape of the terrain has a direct and significant impact on network coverage. For example, a gateway deployed on a hillside cannot provide coverage within the shadow of the hill.
• Gateway Height. As a general rule, higher gateway locations achieve greater coverage because signals from higher gateway locations tend to travel through free space most of the time. The following series of images show single gateway coverage at heights of 5, 15, 25, 50, and 100 meters at an arbitrary location (George Square, Glasgow), and indicate the impact gateway height has on coverage.

Coverage of gateways at 5, 15, 25, 50, and 100 meters

• Clutter. A number of things can contribute to radio clutter within a network’s target area, such as buildings, houses, and roads. The more detail that can be gathered about the obstacles, the better the radio map predictions will be.
• Gateway Antenna. When using a high-gain antenna, consider the antenna pattern. The reception strength of a gateway can be improved in the horizontal axis at the cost of the reception strength in the vertical axis. This results in decreased coverage above and below the antenna.
• End-device Antenna. If such an antenna is within your control, you should consider this as well.  Good antenna design here takes device encasement into account, as well as things like orientation, phase shift, and attenuation. In contrast, poorly-designed antennas may increase, rather than decrease, attenuation.
• Coverage versus Scale. If you are only conducting your radio planning for coverage purposes, you do not need to consider spreading factors. However, if you are planning for a large deployment and expect a large number of devices to be operational on the network, consider planning for a low spreading factor. This will help increase the capacity of the network. For example, the network can handle many more devices when all packets are sent on SF8 as compared to SF11.